36. I did find that to be a law of urban areas though

there is always some barrier, like an interstate, a creek, an industrial park - something to stop most streets from going through the town. Therefore, if you want to go across town, you are sorta stuck using a really busy street which is not at all good for bicycling.

But a small town like Onaga which currently has no grocery store and perhaps depends on drives to Manhattan or Topeka for city services, as well as having many people commuting long distances to work in the hospital there. That town is probably gonna hurt more than Merriam. Towns like Elwood and Wathena which currently depend on commuting to St. Joseph for both services and jobs, will have a harder go of it. But they are also much smaller towns. The three of them combined are less people than Merriam, actually less than half.